Soaring demand at Family Pantry drives renovation

Six years ago, the Harwich Family Pantry served about 500 families a month.

Jamie Balliett

Six years ago, the Harwich Family Pantry served about 500 families a month.

That number has now grown 140 percent to almost 1,200 families. What was considered by many to be a Harwich operation has changed its name to the Family Pantry of Cape Cod. It now serves the entire region, and offers many more food items and services.

Mary Anderson, the pantry’s executive director, said that the organization has had to grow considerably to keep up with demand.

“It’s been an incredible challenge that we had to adapt to,” she said.

The pantry decided to renovate their entire 12,000 square foot facility and move into space at the back of their building that they had previously rented to another company.

The estimated $275,000 renovation was designed by Mary-Ann Agresti of the Design Initiative in Hyannis and is being built by Rick Roy Construction of Harwich. About a third of the construction is finished so far.

“This new space will completely change the way clients move through on pick-up days. We’ll now have a large multi-purpose room for special events and meetings and classes,” Anderson said.

One recent morning, Anderson showed how the new lay-out will work. About a dozen clients moved through a large room. Volunteers helped load goods into bags, picking from a large set of shelves that span an entire wall.

A bank of new refrigerators offered frozen meats and other goods. The fresh food for the day included carrots, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, oranges, and bananas.

“We try and offer as much fresh produce as we can acquire each week,” said Anderson.

Another room, called the Boutique, will be dedicated to clothing and bathroom items. Volunteers are processing a steady stream of donations. Manager Claudia Crockett of West Harwich, a 15-year volunteer at the pantry, said that donations have stayed up through the down economy.

“We certainly needed this room just for clothing. People aren’t holding onto clothes and with so many retirees who move here, we often get big donations,” she said, laughing that they have a hard time finding homes for the thousands of neckties that arrive each month.

The Pantry’s thrift shop, Second Glance, is located at 563 Main Street (on Route 28) in Harwich Port. With high quality donations and a great location, the shop has turned into a money maker for the pantry, netting $90,000 last year.

“That really makes a difference for us, to have a revenue stream,” said Anderson, who noted that only 10 percent of the clothing donations go to the thrift store.

Anderson said that the organization is run by one full-time and two part-time employees, and “an incredible army of over 300 volunteers, who work tirelessly for us. We are so lucky to have their support, day in and day out. We couldn’t do it without them.”

According to Anderson, the number of clients has increased due to the down economy, but also because the pantry now offers new food items, including frozen meats and fresh produce, and social service programs. There are also opportunities for clients to work in a large community garden to grow their own food. The pantry also helps with food stamp and fuel assistance applications.

Despite the demographic trends showing an aging of the Cape, Anderson said that a large portion of the new clients are between the ages of 30 and 50, many of whom were laid off over the last two years.

“Anyone in the area can come here, not just Harwich residents. Knowledge of us as a regional provider has certainly brought people from all across the Cape,” said Anderson, who said that last year, 35,951 bags of food were given out, which equals an astounding 899,000 pounds. In 2011, the Pantry spent about $500,000 to buy food.

Anderson is looking forward to this summer, when the renovations are complete and operations can spread out into the bigger space.

“We’ve made it through construction without missing a single pick-up day for our clients. That’s really significant. This project is critical to improving services and making things flow much better. We didn’t need a Cadillac in terms of settings, but we did need a really well designed VW bug,” she said with a big grin.

Pantry needs your help

Volunteer: Help needed in thrift shop, pantry, gardens.

Donate: Non-perishable food, clothing, money to help pay for construction.